James Ardis

You Will Get Published A Quick Guide to Your Good, Inevitable Fortune James Ardis May 24, 2018 Get your wings and gas masks ready, people. It’s time to talk publishing. (Collage used with permission of its creator, ​Serg Nehaev​) Recently, I had the good fortune of publishing ​a chapbook of Coldplay devotional hymns​ with Long Day Press. The editors really loved my strange work and they took great care in bringing it out into the world. There have been times where I wasn’t sure whether or not the things I write will ever be published. In hindsight, there was no need to be worried because every weird project I’ve embarked upon has eventually found its home. This all brings me to you.​ I don’t know who you are or what your personal writing style is, but the one thing I do know is that if you keep trying, you can and will get published.​ It is impossible for me to know which journals will publish you or when your writing will grace this world but I know that it will. Below, ​I have written a retrospective to your inevitable success. In this retrospective, you will find four steps you followed to get to the promise land. 1. You Got Your Resources in Order If you don a typewriter upon your head, you will be able to use every free moment to write and submit to publishers. (Collage used with permission of its creator, ​Serg Nehaev​) You knew that if you were going to storm the gates of the publishing world, you would need a few tools. You discovered Entropy’s ​quarterly “Where to Submit”​ article, created a detailed list of journals from that article that fit your needs, and religiously tracked their deadlines. You also read Entropy’s series of interviews with the editors of small presses​ which allowed you to get to know them before you submitted.​ You remembered that editors are people, too. You never ever forgot that. Every writer will eventually make a ​Submittable account​ in order to send their work out to journals and presses. However, unlike most writers, you also read the weekly Submittable newsletter, which contains publishing opportunities, industry news, and book recommendations. This is what your email inbox looks like now. The glorious struggle. We all have mixed feelings about email listservs, but you realized that the ​Creative Writers Opportunities Listserv or CRWOPPS gave you a daily list of journals to submit to and even gave you an idea of what jobs are available for creative writers. Finally, you maximized ​your free trial to Duotrope​, a handy resource for finding publishing opportunities. At the end of that trial, you made an informed decision on whether or not this resource was right for you. Once you had Entropy, Submittable, CRWOPPS, and Duotrope all set up, you were ready for the next (and probably most fun) step in the publishing process: reading and understanding the literary journals that resonate with you most. 2. You Became a Super Fan of Certain Literary Journals Instead of just submitting to any and all literary journals, you took the time to find journals whose work you legitimately enjoyed. When you found a journal whose aesthetic, priorities, or general vibe you appreciated, you read every issue you could get your hands on. ​Most importantly, you never changed your writing style to please a prestigious journal. ​Just because a journal got a million original views last year did not mean you were going to try and write something specifically for that journal. That would have been a waste of your time and the editors’. You also looked at the bios of all the writers included in the most recent issue of your favorite journals. You made note of which literary magazines each person mentioned in their bio and searched for them, just in case they also spoke to your aesthetic. 3. You Were Unfazed by Rejection Legend has it that she spent years deep sea diving for acceptance letters. (Collage used with permission of its creator, ​Serg Nehaev​) When you sent things out at first, you were so sure they would be accepted that you already imagined them on the journal’s website. You only submitted a few things at a time and were discouraged when they were all sent back, rejected. Later, you realized rejection was going to happen and you embraced it. My professor at the University of Mississippi, Chris Offutt, told me to aim for one hundred rejections every year. He believed that ​if you are submitting enough of your work to get rejected one hundred times a year, then you have a real shot at getting published​. I generally agree with Offutt’s advice and it makes my Submittable account (which has a total of 157 rejections) feel like an achievement. I have put myself out there enough to be rejected at least 157 times and that has been enough to reach a group of people who enjoy my work and want to publish it regularly. The first of TWO WHOLE PAGES worth of my Submittable rejections, 157 in total 4. You Grew a Community around Your Writing Once you found journals you appreciated, you started sharing poems and stories they published on social media. You wrote thorough, thoughtful reviews of recent books from authors with an aesthetic similar to your own.You financially supported journals whenever possible. Just because you reviewed a book, financially supported a literary journal, and/or publicized a published poem on social media ​did not mean the press, literary journal or author who benefited from these actions made an effort to publish your work.​ However, ​these actions made you a more active member of the writing community.​ When you started getting work published, a lot of people were happy to see you find success. They celebrated your good fortune because you showed kindness to them in the past. It made the journey more fulfilling because you decided not to travel alone. Conclusion This is the part of the essay where I should probably wish you good luck. However, we both know by now that luck has nothing to do with it. You will get published and, more importantly, ​you’ll meet a lot of new people who will support and champion your contributions to the writing community​.That is what makes the journey worth all the trouble. Now get out there and conquer the world. And oh yeah, thanks for reading!